Meaning
BLENCH, v.i. [This evidently is the blanch of Bacon [See Blanch.] and perhaps the modern flinch.]
To shrink; to start back to give way.
BLENCH, v.t. To hinder or obstruct, says Johnson. but the etymology explains the passage he cites in a different manner. ""The rebels carried great trusses of hay before them, to blench the defendants' fight."" That is, to render the combat blank; to render it ineffectual; to break the force of the attack; to deaden the shot.
BLENCH, n. A start.
